Allistair Lomax's Blog (22)

Dear Friends,

You are invited to a meeting of the George Fox Project Trust.

Trustees meet regularly to discuss how we can support the trusts aims of publishing the writings of Early Friends. We welcome attendance from New Foundation workers and supporters.

Our next meeting is on the 15-12-2023 @18:30 GMT.

You can use this link to join:

https://meet.google.com/png-qehy-kfk

Dear Friends,

This is not a regular Blog, but I'd like to solicit everyone's opinions about upgrading this site to the next Ning Platform.

This site is currently running on a platform called Ning 2.0, but, a couple of years ago, Ning released it's latest platform, Ning 3.0. So far, I've ignored their pleas to upgrade.

From a users perspective, it will make little difference to the ordinary users of this site. It will work pretty much as before. There will be no impact on…

This morning in worship, I felt led to share the first couple of paragraphs from George Fox's letter to Lady Claypole.

It contains much useful spiritual counsel, and reveals much about how Fox viewed the interior world of human spiritual experience.

One of our attenders, whose first language is not English, asked questions about one particular passage;

"When you are in the transgression of the life of God in your own particular way, the mind flies up in the air,…

There is an old Indian proverb that goes something along the lines of, “he who…

What do you think the Church is?

One of the distinct aspects of the Gospel of Early Friends, and a matter of faith that George Fox was most clear on, was his conception what it is that constitutes the True Church.



A good starting point to reach clarity on this point is to ask ourselves the question, what is the Church?

Misconceptions

There are many misleading answers offered by various counterfeit versions of Christianity. They tend to…

Many years ago, Else Pickvance (1915-2002)[1], gave me a small abridged version of the journal of John Burnyeat. Else and I had been talking about the importance of properly discerning Christ’s leading within ourselves and the importance of our spiritual community in helping us toward in this vital task of the Spirit. She pointed out to me this small passage which to me speaks volumes about the spiritual place…

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell…

Yesterday, I received the sad news that our dear Friend, and long-time New Foundation Worker, Ursula Windsor passed away two days ago (29-3-2015)

Even though this may not be the most suitable or appropriate means for sharing news of this nature, nevertheless, I feel it right to use our web site to let Friends now that this has happened.

We in the UK keenly feel Ursula's passing, because of her long and sustained contribution to our work. She was one of the last…

The New Foundation Fellowship has been in existence since 1974, and has been active in the UK since then.

Some of you may have noticed that there has been a lack of New Foundation activity in the UK for over a year. You may also have noticed that there has been neither a recent newsletter nor edition of New Foundation Papers.

As one of the long-standing members of the UK…

Dear Friends,

A suggestion has been put forward for the establishment of George Fox Reading Group in the UK. This would involve selecting suitable readings from the published works of George Fox and reading them aloud to each other. A similar group already exists in the United States, and this group has run successfully. Becky and Ellis Hein, in the US, are willing to join such a group and help support it.



The suggestion is that this would be done…

We have recently received the following from Tomasz Kowalski, in Turin, Poland. He is visiting London with family and friends, from today (27-4-2012) to the 8-5-2012. Would any NFF supporters in the London area be able to meet up with him. I have invited him to the Ripley Gathering on the 5th of  5th Month at Ripley, but I think it would be good for him to meet a wider circle of NFF Friends;

Allistair Lomax

The artwork above is by E. Burne-Jones, April 1888, for the first book edition of William Morris' A Dream of John Ball. Illustrates the couplet "When Adam delved and Eve span / Who was then the gentleman?" which had international popularity in several Germanic languages as an equalitarian slogan during the medieval period.…

UK Newsletter #39d (Winter) is available. It contains a precursor of our main Woodbrooke theme, Fox's Firbank Fell sermon by Justin Meggit (our main presenter) and an article on the same theme by Michael Langford. Go Here

We were recently asked to respond to an online discussion.

The point we were asked to respond to was as follows; "Well, my most important question that i asked earlier is that what is so special about George Fox's views and beliefs? From what i understand, he wasn't satisfied with the Anglicans and Catholics of his time and he took matters into his own hand. He started preaching, and sharing the gospel in his own special way!…

Conscience and Light

 …

Our Friend, Rodney Pharris has posted a very serviceable exposition on Fox and Early Quaker's approach to the taking of outward bread and wine on QuakerQuaker. A useful and well-argued blog that deserves a link from here...

Fox on Bread & Wine

Dear Friends,

Greetings from the joint gathering of the New Foundation Fellowship and the Wider Conservative Friends Fellowship in Oregon.  We met at Clackamas Park Friends Church 7-9, Seventh Month (July).  The gathering included Conservative, Evangelical and Liberal Friends with a number who have no formal association with Quakers.  This was a fruitful mix as good questions were asked of one another and helped all of us to sharpen and clarify our understanding and language.  Folks…

Quaker Worship and ‘Centering down’

I was recently asked a question about the term ‘to center down’ in the context of Quaker worship, and whether, as a phrase, it had been used by early Friends. A few checks confirmed my suspicions that it was not used by them, and I have not found any references to ‘centering down’ in George Fox’s writings (with which I am the most familiar). My questioner did come back to me with some examples of the use of the phrase used by…

A GENERAL EPISTLE TO THE SEED OF GOD By Francis Howgill

Dear Friends everywhere who have believed in our Lord Jesus Christ, and (who have been) called with an holy calling to the great salvation of God which is made manifest in this day of his power. Keep your first love, and let not the threats of men, neither the frowns of the world affright you from that which you have prized more than all the world. Now the sun is up, and a…